CD Review: The Tony DeGregorio Sextet's "I Love Pancakes!"

There is nary a genre of music that goes better with breakfast quite like jazz. Nothing makes that first meal of the day more satisfying than having it scored by the soothing sax work of Stan Getz or the plaintive piano genius of Bill Evans on a calm Sunday morning. So when Hudson Valley-by-way-of-Brooklyn guitarist Tony DiGregorio titled the latest LP from his renowned sextet I Love Pancakes!, he was perhaps not so much trying to be goofy as he was providing concrete evidence to this idea of breakfast and jazz being quintessential bedfellows.

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DiGregorio and his group, which is rounded out by Tim Hays on alto sax, Nathan Paris on trombone, Hilliard Greene and Joseph M. Peterson on basses, and Andy O'Neill on drums, have phenomenal backgrounds with deep roots in their craft. And on these six original compositions they combine forces to bring their collective experience to full boil on this timeless and tasteful variation of the chamber jazz format, handsomely highlighted by lengthy workouts like "Arianna," "Blues Mondo," and "How Are Things in Balaklava?" The oil painting on the album cover really says it all, for I Love Pancakes! is a simply gorgeous collection of instrumentals aimed to put just the right amount of bop in your next big breakfast.